my journey through NSS
For me also motive behind coming to IIT is none other than money, main motive of many who come here. But that money was not to spend for myself alone but for a cause, for many needy. In 1yr when we were sitting in NCC canteen thinking of any silly un-healthy reason to escape from NCC and join NSS, peon came to us, Archi guys, and said we are sorry we cannot take you into NCC as you people will be busy on weekends also in academics, will be having less time to spend for NCC. Then we all were very happy, as in NSS less no.of activities were there, so less no.of working hours.
First Year
But in First year whenever there was an event I worked for that with dedication. Once or twice I went to Prerna classes, where 10-20 children normally come to study. But I was not given an opportunity to sit and teach as I was knowing little Hindi at that time(much lesser than that I know now :P ). So I stayed away from Prerna and it was the only major activity in NSS at that time other than Blood Donation Camps, Some Lectures(which students used to feel them as boring ones) and group discussions and fund raising for Roorkee School for Deaf. So only those involved in Prerna were given A+ grade and everyone else below that.
Second Year
When I was in 2yr I was more interested in going to villages. Other than that I worked for regular activities. Under a 3yrt, along with one more 2yrt, Ashish Arora, we started working in Telliwala village under the name "Disha". At the end of the year when new team was announced my name was not in the list. I was disappointed. But consoled myself that the one who got post have worked more than me, if I could have worked that much I would have been part of the team.
Third Year
When I came to 3yr I attended 1st executive meeting and asked staff advisor and other executive team members for work. Prof. Katiyar asked me to help Akansha Singhal, who was incharge of “Prerna Classes”. I was happy and accepted his suggestion. By that time in Prerna was meant for children of mess workers on campus. But me and Akansha were with the spirit of taking Prerna to new heights, and fruits of it to as many children as possible. So, we went to other staff memebers of the campus and asked them to send their chidlren to Prerna classes, then we expanded slowly to nearby village Khanjarpur, which is just beside the campus gate. Mainly people those live in the village were working for the campus directly or indirectly.
By the end of the semester I was familiar with the many families in the village. I used to visit village once in a week and whenever I go to the village I used to get 2-3 new children, may be from the same family or neighbors, interested in studying at Prerna. In this way strength of children who come to study in Prerna reached from 30 in september starting to 80 by mid october. It became difficult to manage, as I was having only man powerof 60 students. In December, during winter holidays, there were only 1 or 2 First yearites to volunteer Prerna. Then we invited volunteers, we got good response and whole winter vacations 6-7 volunteers themselves taken careof Prerna. As I myself was busy in a departmental competetion(NASA - National Association of Students of Architecture) I was irregular.
I was happy and ensured myself that "there is good in the world and will remain forever untill Earth and Sky won't come together", these are the words spelled out by our village head, to console me when I was financially strucked to come to IIT and feeling sad. In January I started working with more dedication. I used to spend 5-8 hours in the village, Khanjarpur, ensuring every needy student coming to Prerna, otherwise asking him/her to join. By the end of the January there were 130 students in Prerna, which I myself cann't believe. To manage this many children, I used students present in Disha cell, as Disha was stopeed due to venue and winter problems. So now me and Akansha were busy in handling about 130 children and 110 first year students and volunteers.
In this way I tried to make a change (with the help of many) where I was rejected to participate in the first year. Whenever I gets time I even used to teach some children along with managing things.
In February, after mid-sem along with taking care of Prerna, I diverted my attention to the children of construction workers on campus. Two volunteers Jaya Khanna and Shikha Verma(now I call both of them deedi, they are really great persons with lot of affection for the needy), who were regular in Prerna were ready to help me in this activity. I roamed around whole campus for venue. As these children live beside Cautley I tried in nearby places, my efforts gone in vain. Then I went to Saraswathi Mandir authorities, they too rejected saying they will destroy the lawns and the chances are that they will make the place more dirty. It hurted me, but I didn't stop my efforts. I went to ABN School authorities, as classes will be only till 2pm we asked them to give one room to teach these children. They too rejected softly saying its not in our hands, but in a professors hands. And chances were less as this school acts as a corporate school than a Govt. school with flexible rules.
Then last option was NCC building verandah. I went to Kernal and asked for his support to teach these lovely children, whose childhood is going waste in the disturbing sounds of construction. First of all he said, ohh you are from NSS. Why did you go to NSS??? is it because there will be less work to do??? I smiled and said reality. He pleased to listen my words and said 'you can use the Verandah'. I was very happy and asked him about permission letter. He said, 'I don't need any such letters, you can use this verandah daily, as your timing is also from 2-4 it won't disturb Canteen customers as it will start from 4pm. But once or twice there may be a function, so on that day you may have to give holiday'. I was happy to see his generosity and was feeling in my heart to give a big SALUTE to him.
Real story starts now. Many of the boys were not interested in studying, infact they were afraid of conventional punishments that students get in Govt. schools. So whenever I go their colony, beside Cautley, they used to go some where and hide. Girls were interested in studying but their parents gave them responsibilty of taking care of their siblings. In the starting everyone was not interested and I used to get tired of convincing their parents to send their wards to us. My situation was nothing lesser than crying to see their un-supportive response. But I consoled myself saying its not their problem, their illiteracy made them ignorant of their children's education and future safety.First they were afraid of their wards security. When they got confidence about security they used to show silly reasons to stop their ward to come to us.
In the starting only 4-5 children started coming to us. In 3-4 days these children understand that studying needs no punishemnts, it can be done with affection also. We attracted girls childs asking them to bring their siblings along with them. Among them one girl used to have 3 siblings and she have to take care of three of them. I used to help her many times in bringing them to the place. At the venue smaller ones used to play sideby, while others used to study with us. Many times I used to lose patience but those two great ladies used to teach children with a lot and lot of affection without losing patience even in difficult times. After some days a PG student called Praveen Sherawat started coming to each these children and things were going fine.
While continuing my efforts for improvement of Prerna and starting new activity of teaching children of construction workers(which is now named as NIRMAN), in the parallel I started thinking to do something in the near by village KALIYAR, a pilgrimage centre where 80% of the village children are away from school and half of whom make their livelyhood by begging. Aling with the village infront of shrine there is a large piece of land where many migrant families made small huts and living. These families earn their livelyhood from begging only. As there is a tradition of distributing food at all times, pilgrims unknowing the fact that they are making many people dependent, distribute food. So Pratham, an NGO, who gave me an idea about this village, was ready to help us to imrove the state of village.
We arranged a volunteer to teach these children from 4-6pm in the evening daily in Govt. school as it will be empty after 4pm. I took 12 guys with me to Kaliyar. We went to each and every hut and motivated them to send their wards to study with us for just an hour or two daily without compromising much on their regular activities. What we thought was, if we ask them to stop begging and come to us to study, they will not even talk to us. So we thought of motivating to stop begging and doing petty jobs through teaching. To pur surprise 1st day 30 children came to us to study. And within a week it went upto 60 children. This program continued for a month or two. Every year people celebrate a MELA in Kaliayr which disturbs the living style of migrated people for 1 month, forcing them to evacuate the Govt. land.
While all these were things were going my mind was really getting disturbed about the future of NSS and its activities. As I was planning to start my IAS preperation I was really confused what to do. Then I took a bold decision of postponing my preperation for 1more year. If I plan to do both things simultaneosly, there will be no one more foolish than me. I cannot do justice for both at a time. As I am weak in communication, my coleagues hesitated to leave NSS in my hands. Normally the old tem selects new team before their tenure gets over. I tried to convince them that even though I am not a great speaker, I can deal with villagers and children much better than anyone. They also know that, as they had seen me through out the year going to differen villagers and starting new activities.
Luckily, they accepted my proposal and gave responsibility of whole NSS IIT Roorkee chapter. In this way they gave me an opportunity to explore myself while helping many people in around campus. This made me realise that Swami Vivekananda's dynamic words "Give me 100 energetic young men and I shall transform India" are true. Yes, these words are true, if anyone have power to transform the country its Youth, only youth no one else.
Friends I will share my experiences as the General secretary of NSS IIT Roorkee chapter in the upcoming posts.
I hope that the new team will take the organization to new heights and will make NSS IIT Roorkee an icon student group for all who want to see India a developed country.
Naga M. Reddy A.
B. Arch 4yr
+91 9719278700
saluting your dedication .. it's really inspiring
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